Mac’s Hacks: Snooze Edition

Hola my lovely chicas! Welcome to the first of many Mac’s Hacks. I hope that this month’s edition will help you roll out of those covers a little more gracefully and, if we do this right, maybe even get you a few more moments to snooze.

We all know that waking up at six in the morning (or really any time that is before your body naturally rises) is not necessarily something that you would do if you had the choice. You could have a different experience, but as far as all of the people that I have talked to, not one has said, “whoa man, I got WAY too much sleep last night.” Now, again you may think differently, but if someone has said this to you, please tell them to email me, (it’s at the bottom of the page.) This blog is meant to help you get yourself up and rolling as efficiently (and painlessly) as possible.

My first suggestions are actually practiced the night before, these will each help you to have less to do in the morning so that you may be able to sleep in more.

If you have a smartphone you can download a sleep app; the best one that I found was called “Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock.” It will track your sleep for you and wake you up at a time that will make you feel alert and awake. If you have an iPhone, you don’t even have to download an app; there is a built-in application under the clock tab in your control center called Bedtime. There, you can set up what time you would like to wake up, what days of the week you want it to wake you up, how many hours of sleep you want to get, and what sound you want to wake you up. I know that that sounds like a lot, but it will help you to get in more hours and to get on a more regular schedule.

On some apps you can set your wake-up call to be a song. If you would do this, I suggest a song that will get you up and pumpin real quick. Another upside to this sleep app is that there is usually not a snooze button, if it does have one, or you think you may hit “I’m up” and roll back into sleep you can start to put your phone away from your bed which, I know, means you can’t be on it while you’re in bed, but studies show that you will get to sleep much faster if you are not on your phone right before bed. By putting your phone away from your bed it forces you to get up and moving even if it’s a minimal amount.

Another thing you can do the night before is pick out an outfit for the next day and have it laid out (as well as any makeup or hair gadgets you may use), so that you aren’t riffling through your closet and changing your outfit three times or scrambling to find your mascara in the morning.

You can also try to wake up to some natural light by opening up your blinds at night so that you can rise with the sun.

Another thing that will help to speed up your morning routine is to have your homework done, organized, and in your backpack which should be in a logical and set place where you can find it easily and are not scrambling to find assignments or your calculator when you’re about to leave.

Now we start in on the actual morning routine. When you first get out of bed, a good thing to do is go ahead and wash your face with cold water, this will leave you awakened and refreshed and will make you less oily throughout the day.

If you have bad dark circles, like me, or pimples that seem to appear overnight that are red and uncomfortable, you can grab an ice cube and slide it along those puppies and it will make your under eyes brighter and reduce swelling and make your pimples less uncomfortable.

If you like to paint your nails in the morning but always seem to mess them up because they don’t seem to want to dry you can simply soak your hand in ice cold water and it will solidify the nail polish and you won’t have to do things as if you had melted chocolate on your fingers for the next ten minutes.

That is the extent of Mac’s hacks for now. I’ll come back at you later my loves so be ready. If you want me to focus my next blog on any specific thing, email me at the address below (I apologize for the sounding like a youtuber.)

Lauren MacGregor

Lauren MacGregor is a sophomore. She is a first year journalism student and enjoys taking photos, painting, and being with her dog. Lauren is taking all honors this year and is hoping to get into NC State under some sort of art major. You can learn more about Lauren by going to her website, laurenmacgregor.weebly.com